Mobile phone uses & gratification Literature review

Mobile phone uses & gratification - Literature review Example Exploring how to manage the distractions by creating an application for the mobile that moderately controls the media. The International Telecommunications Union (ITU) reported in 2002 that there were already about one billion mobile phone users around the world.The popularity of mobile phones, however, was attributed to wireless technology as telephone applications empower peoples from all walks of lives to use it anywhere and anytime (Bates et al., 2002). Aside from mobility and accessibility, mobile phones are preferred by many due to enlarged scope of information content via the Personal Communication Systems or PCS. Services include delivery of weather updates, news headlines, traffic, locations, internet access, among many others that consumers require. It has rapidly changed the way people live, work, and interacts with one another more than the landlines before them (Wei & Lo, 2006). Socio-Psychological Impact Wei & Lo (2006) explored the role of the mobile phone in individua l’s family ties and social connectedness and suggested that phones which were considered a commodity of the past has come a long way. The wireless phones today have several purposes aside from instant verbal communication between users – the caller and the receiver. Designers provided many components and collaborations in order to produce the finished product with various features. The Qualcomm noted that â€Å"†¦enormous strides have been made in the delivery of data to mobile devices. In particular, cellular telephony networks have matured into robust delivery mechanisms for Internet data, and a rich variety of services are being offered around the world,† (Qualcomm, 2006, P) Wireless phone hardware and software evolved in parallel with internet capabilities and graphic art media so that it has become inevitable for many groups of businesses, engineers, artists and even the consumers cooperating with one another (Kaye, 2006). The Smartphone from IBM has b een cited as an â€Å"information appliance† that has a phone and a personal digital assistant or PDA. The features include a calendar, an address book, world clock, calculator, note-pad, e-mail, and games. This should not be surprising because such features were in mobile phones for more than a decade now as progression continues towards maximizing capabilities. The Operating Systems used are Symbian, Palm OS, Windows, BREW, Linux, and other new generations of programs that are capable of integration with current systems. Similar applications are developed with variations of games; access of internet and memory capabilities for various media downloads and uploads. Kaye (2006) has noted that mobile phone entertainment has been used by gaming companies to demonstrate new games to attract users in purchasing the full software. Games together with ringtones, and wallpapers were seen to generate more revenue. â€Å"In Europe and other regions, ringtones are a billion-dollar busi ness, yet sales were only in the low millions in the United States during 2003,† (Kaye, 2006). Recent developments in mobile phones include cameras and MP3 players as companies collaborate on the product â€Å"to deliver a worthy product to consumers.† Apple company with subsidiary iTunes were cited to cooperate with Motorola the phone hardware and Cingular, a U.S. wireless phone carrier, to deliver quality downloads on phone music player. Clutter is reduced on the part of the consumer as MP3 player and mobile phone become one (Kaye, 2006). Likewise, images can now be sent, downloaded, captured or uploaded on the internet and elsewhere through the mobile phone (Kaye, 2006). Mobile phones have a basic photographic quality of up to 2 mega pixels per image and even video capture and sharing fit for tiny screens of mobile phones. Nokia released the mobile phone with camcorder capabilities for amateur film-maker or for those who can and will afford it, and others soon follow ed suit (Kaye, 2006). More